


Pardon Me

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s05e11 The Benign Prerogative, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-07
Updated: 2008-09-07
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: A continued conversation during Benign Prerogative





	Pardon Me

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

  
Author's notes: This was in response to a challenge issued to me by Rick. I said Josh and Donna could have gotten together at any given time after any of their conversations, so he issued this particular conversation as a challenge. The beginning is the scene from the show the challenge is from.  


* * *

JOSH: What's all this?  
DONNA: Council's office sent these over. They're case files for today's meeting with the Pardon Attorney.  
JOSH: You wouldn't think there'd be so many.  
DONNA: There's only thirty-six, but they aren't short stories. Each file has the original trial record and petition by the prisoner, the Bureau of Prisons recommendation, DOJ recommendation, White House Counsel's preliminary report--  
JOSH: Don't leave them here.  
DONNA: You said you wanted to take a look?  
JOSH: I said we wanted to take a look, and when I said we ...  
DONNA: ... You meant me.   
JOSH: I'll help you.  
DONNA: Thanks.  
JOSH: Move them.  
DONNA: Right.  
JOSH: We need a space where you can spread out. We need to be familiar with the specifics of each of these petition.  
DONNA: And when you say we ...?  
JOSH: That's the spirit! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Josh picked up half the files and started for the door. Glaring, Donna picked up the other half and began to follow him. 

Right before the door though, he stopped short, causing her to run into him. 

"Ooof! Josh!" she protested as the pile of files lauched into her stomach.

Josh kicked the door shut and turned around. "Listen..." he began.

"Are you insane?" Donna replied. "I just jabbed myself in the stomach with my pen."

"Yeah, I'm sorry." he apologized putting his stack of files on a visitor's chair. He then relieved Donna of hers and turned to face her. "I just..." he broke off when he saw her rubbing her stomach and pouting. "You okay?"

"Yeah." she nodded. "What's up?" 

"Before you got into this, I just wanted to tell you..." He looked up at her and she was looking back with what he'd come to term in his own mind as the quintessential Donna look. She was looking at him and listening with all her attention as she always did when he talked, even though she'd never admit it out loud. Her eyes were wide and curious and trusting, which is why he felt bad right now. 

"What?" she asked again.

"These are all non-violent offenders in here and some of them got handed a raw deal. I'm giving this to you because you're the only one I trust on our staff to do a thorough job of it, and you've been looking for more responsibility and I want you to have it."

"Okay." she smiled a little nervously. She wasn't sure where he was going with this. 

"When you're going through these, Donna, just try and take the personal out of it."

"What?" 

"Some of these people really don't deserve to be in jail, and those are the ones we're looking for, but after a while..."

"Isn't that the point?"

"Yes! I'm not making any sense because I'm hoping you can just read my mind right now." 

"Okay. I know I've said I'm tuned to you, Josh, but I can't actually read your mind. I know I've let you believe that over the years because it's kept you out of trouble..."

"I'm being serious here." he said quietly. 

"Okay." she immediately broke off. The electricity in the room seemed to change. This was a familiar feeling between them; one that she hadn't seen in a while and she missed desperately. He was going to let his guard down and show her the real Josh, the one that the others never saw and he saved for her. 

"You take things to heart more than I do, and I don't want to say that you have a thin-skin, but you've got a lot of compassion and it's one of the things I like most about you, but these are all real sad stories and I don't want you to get all upset about them."

"This is a compliment?"

"I know you're going to start to get sucked into their stories and their plights of woe..."

"Plights of woe?"

"...and before I know it, I'm going to come over to check on you and you're going to be crying over it, and it's going to be heartbreaking and it'll be somewhere where I can't hug you to try to make you feel better, and so I'm going to end up in a weird mood about it..." 

"Josh." she smiled. 

"You're going to make fun of me now. This is why we don't have these kinds of chats."

She shook her head and smiled, then surprised him by lightly putting her hands on his shoulders and leaning in to kiss his cheek softly. She pulled away just enough to see his reaction.

His eyes were wide and he hiked his eyebrows up to his forehead. "Well, we've never done that before."

"No." she said softly smiling. 

"I'm suddenly very happy that the door is shut."

"Or that would be misinterpreted." she nodded, but neither one of them had taken a step back yet.

"I'd kill for a misinterpretation about now." 

"You wanted someone to see that?"

"No. I want it to be misinterpreted between you and me. For once, I want something like this not to mean you just did it because you think I'm sweet."

"I do think you're sweet, but that's not why I did it. And it's not why you said what you said."

Josh blew out a long breath and looked at her. "No, it's not." 

She began to slide her hands down his chest and step away, but his hands shot up and covered hers where they were. "The moment's not going to pass, is it?" she whispered.

"Not this time." he whispered before gently touching his lips to hers. 

She slid her hands around his neck and his snaked around her waist. She pressed her body against his as he gently changed the angle and tightened his hold on her. 

The surreality of the moment hung around them. Six years of odd moments between them, long looks and sometimes pain culminating into a quiet moment in his office. It was an inevitable moment between them, the silent understanding between them that they were attracted to each other, but unable to get around the boundaries one of them put up when they got too close and got scared. 

When they broke away, she smiled at him. "Does this mean you're going to help me go through these now?"

"Nope." he smirked.

"You suck!" she accused, smacking him on the chest and stepping back.

"I do, you should experience it sometime." he leered, stealing his chance to kiss her again when her eyes went wide at his suggestion. 

"Well, I'd say I could come by tonight, but I've got all these files to go through now." 

"You could bring them with you." he suggested. 

"And you'd help me?"

"No. I'm just saying it'd make it look good for why you were coming over."

"Instead of saying, 'oh I'm going over Josh's to give him the best night of sex he's ever had?'" 

She laughed when he auditably gulped. "Yeah, that might not be a popular response around here." She laughed again and moved to step away. She got no more than a step or two, before his hand shot out and he pulled her back. 

"Hey." she whispered.

"Hey." he whispered back. 

"This could get distracting at work."

"Look how sorry I'm not." 

And then they were kissing again and it was quite sometime before she finally got set up on the project.

~finis~


End file.
